One person was killed and another injured on Saturday as heavy rains continued throughout the nation, causing extensive flooding and landslides.
Northern and eastern Taiwan bore the brunt of the rainstorms, with 2,000 people in Yilan County stranded after a road was blocked by landslides, while a hotel in Taitung County was hit by flash flooding.
The torrential rain, caused by the combined effects of northeasterly winds and Typhoon Khanun south of Taiwan, prompted the Taitung County Government to close schools and offices yesterday.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
A landslide in the county’s Xiangyang National Forest Recreation Area blocked a mountain road, stranding 93 hikers who most likely had supplies for only one meal, Taitung police said.
The mountain road will not be cleared for traffic until this afternoon, the Directorate-General of Highways said.
In the northern part of the nation, a man was killed on Saturday night when his truck skidded off the Northern Coastal Highway in New Taipei City and slammed into a guard rail.
Meanwhile, the New Taipei City Government said an entire residential community in the mountainous Sijhih District (汐止) was at risk due to erosion caused by the rain.
One injury was also reported on Saturday when a boat capsized off the coast of Yunlin County due to the bad weather.
The captain, a Chinese national, was rescued by a National Airborne Service Corps helicopter and taken to a hospital.
The flooding, landslides, mudslides and rock falls caused by the unrelenting rain have also disrupted travel in several parts of the nation, while some roads have been closed as a precautionary measure.
In the area near the affected highway in Yilan County, a road that serves five villages has been blocked by landslides, cutting off access to the rest of the county for the 2,000 residents.
The disruptions also extended to rail travel, particularly on the South Link Line that runs between the east and west coasts across southern Taiwan.
A 50m section of the track near Taimali Township (太麻里) in Taitung County was damaged by the flooding, affecting 800 passengers, the Taiwan Railways Administration said yesterday.
The weather is expected to return to normal today and tomorrow, with a noticeable increase in temperature, meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said.
However, due to the influence of northeasterly winds, the temperature is expected to drop between Wednesday and Saturday, with rain expected in northern and northeastern parts of the nation, he added.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
RSS